Her name was Doris...

Whenever I hear a story with the name "Doris" in it...I just have to read the entire "missive".
This one may seem a little odd but, it is actually quite cute...
Read on:
JS Online:They aren't chickens; they're her peeps:

A few quotes from the story....

"Pam Percy owned a chicken named Doris, but then a hawk ate her (Doris).

Probably it was a hawk. Percy, who lives in River Hills, keeps lots of chickens, and Doris was her favorite. Last summer, Percy heard squawking. She looked outside, and Doris was gone. Vamoosed. She vanished without a trace.

You'd think maybe Percy would have found a couple of feathers spinning, cartoon-like, in the suddenly still air. But no. That's why Percy thinks it was a hawk; they tend not to create the mess that raccoons, weasels or feral cats leave behind.

You shrug. You wonder: So, what does a chicken matter?
But Doris was special, and Percy, author of 'The Complete Chicken,' has dedicated her forthcoming book, 'The Field Guide to Chickens,' to her:
'She was kind and beautiful and is missed by all who knew her.'"

More Global Restructuring? Another nail in the Coffin for U.S. Manufacturing Jobs

This just in.

Delphi Corp. which is a major "Automotive Parts Supplier", announced today that it will probably be closing it's "Oak Creek-Wis" Plant by the end of 2007 .

This will end up meaning the loss of up to 1,200 jobs here in the local area. And what should come as no surprise (but probably is-esp. for the workers there) is that those jobs are being moved to countries across the globe where wages are more or less at the levels where "a bag of Roman Noodles" is an hour's pay......which is ALOT less than what they are dealing with now.

Just take a look at what the "American Dream" Wages at Delphi here in Oak Creek are right now and imagine what the loss of 1,200 jobs at these hourly wages will do to to the local economy here in SE Wisconsin. I only have one question and that is "When Bush says the economy is improving and Americans are better off now than in the past few years....just who is he talking about???......

Delphi Hourly Wage Profile:
Hourly compensation: $76 an hour including benefits in 2005, double what its competitors pay and $11 an hour more than its workers received in 2004.
Breakdown: Average base wage: $26.97 an hour. Health care and vacation days: $26.86 an hour. Other: $22.63 in legacy costs, which includes retirement health care costs and health costs not covered by workers' compensation.

And a quote from the article that I just read and then a link to the story via "The Milwaukee Journal Online Edition"....

"The catalytic converters made in Oak Creek will be made only in Mexico and China before long."


JS Online:Oak Creek could lose Delphi jobs

I think the Mexicans that are trying to emigrate to the U.S. for a chance at better jobs should consider doing an "about face" and get back down south of the boarder....
They may be able to snag one of those "Delphi jobs" down there. They sure wont be available here. Heck maybe all those in Oak Creek should be given the option of relocating to "Warm Sunny Mexico"!!!

Fearful felines-Why are Cats afraid of Water??

The first time I gave Scrappy (my little room mate) a bath, she tried clawing my hands to shreds. She was only a few months old. I (and she) probably will remember that night forever.

She still doesn't like her bi-monthly bathing ritual but she has more or less got used to it....sort of.

She does like to play with water though.
I made the bad habit of letting her drink water from the bathroom faucet tap when she was just a little girl....and now turning the bathroom faucet on both when I get up and when I come home from work...or whenever she meows for it to be turned on...has become one of my daily duties.
She also likes to dip her paws into the cascading water and sometimes if I am near her in the bathroom, she will even toss the water droplets my way via her little paws.....like she is playing a game of "Let's splash Johnny".
It is cute but yet her fascination with this water thing is also annoying at times. As far as I know she has NEVER even drank water from her cat bowl on the floor...even though it is fresh every day. In the summer I even drop an ice cube in to the bowl to keep the water "chilled" and the only thing she does is take the cube out of the bowl and play with it on the floor or carpet or wherever else she can manage to drag said ice cube.

Well then here is a little article from New Scientist that tries to explain why "most" cats and other felines are afraid of water.
I was surprised when, after reading the article, I discovered there are quite a few kittys that do enjoy taking a "dip" now and again!

Click on link below to read the article:
New Scientist Back Page - Fearful felines

Life waxes and wanes with bobbing of the Solar System

Not many people realize as we go through our daily lives, that we are but a very tiny part of this massive and wonderous universe.

In taking things to smaller levels, we are part of a solar system that is part of a galaxy called the Milkey Way which is in a part of space that
has other galaxy's near by.
When one thinks of it in those terms, it gets pretty big out there.

The following article tries to explain why there seems to be a series of "ups and downs" when it comes to biodiversity and life cycles here on earth. I will call it the "Merry Go Round" effect...

Read on for more:
New Scientist Breaking News - Life waxes and wanes with bobbing of the Solar System

A Precursor to Another Middle East War?? UN gives Iran 30 days to comply

The "Big Boys" are speaking. Is Iran listening?
I hope not for their sake.
I have been reading a lot of stories from other "trustworthy news sites" and I firmly believe that this "Devil" called Iran is a COMPLETE and TOTAL FABRICATION made up by.....the U.S. Government to further it's agenda (along with the U.N.) of the World Wide Agenda to rule the world and to further the "Zionist Movement" that most call our "friend...Isreal, which by the way is one of the most crooked governments besides our own.

Read this story for more on this:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.worldpress.org/images/20051030-iran-zionism.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/2170.cfm&h=377&w=250&sz=16&tbnid=My0Ij-xm4Bo03M:&tbnh=119&tbnw=78&hl=en&start=46&prev=/images%3Fq%3Diran%26start%3D40%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN
(sorry for the long link but it is from a site called World Press and there web links are kind of long and intense.

How many "sovereign" nations can we take over without being regarded as the next "Roman Empire"??

But alas, as I have mentioned before, I am only one tiny person in a tiny corner of our "Once Great Country".
I just hope that someday, history will see all of this "new emerging order" for what it really was....
And what would that be??
I think it may have started out as a somewhat and sometimes "noble" approach to peaceful world government and democracy, but somewhere along the line "power", "greed" and a whole host of other factors came into play to make a lot of what is happening a very "twisted and reversed" version of what the originators set out to accomplish.

But the whole experiment has been going on for such a long time and I don't think there is anyone that can stop it from spiraling forward now. Sort of like a wheel that you set into motion....it will roll until it comes to a stop. I think we are a ways from that stop.

Click on link below for this latest international chapter in this ongoing experiment of world governance....
Aljazeera.Net - UN gives Iran 30 days to comply

Immigrant Rallys Could Lead to Camps For Americans and Illegals

This is an interesting story, which for me, takes on a whole new meaning to a blog post that I recently read on another person's blog.
That blog which is written by family member of one of my bosses is called "Crawford's Take" and has alot of interesting articles on a lot of different (mostly liberal politicaly based) subjects.
A link to her blog: www.crawfordstake.blogspot.com

I try to check it out at least once a week. An interesting woman who has lots of neat ideas and theories on things that are going on in our wolrd today.

Renee works for the ACLU here in Milwaukee.
I wonder if she has seen this story. It is scary to think that things like this could actually be underway in our country.

Read Renee's post first and then read the following story that I am talking about. Then look at the differences and the similarities and how different people look at the same things in a much different way.

In the first paragraph she writes:
"I left my office today to go to what was rumored to be an Immigrant's Rights rally from Milwaukee's largely Latino South Side across the 6th Street bridge into downtown Milwaukee. As I drove up to the starting location and couldn't find a parking spot, it began to dawn on me that it could be much more than that..."
Boy could she be right.... but in a whole different way.

Continue reading her post by clicking the link below:
http://crawfordstake.blogspot.com/2006/03/si-se-puede-30000-march-in-milwaukee.html

And now read this story which gives some more "under the radar" background on these immigrant rallys and the first few paragraphs of this article for your reading pleasure:
The catalyst for the agenda to intern millions of Americans deemed subversive in a time of manufactured chaos could be race riots kick-started by radicalized Mexican Klan groups and their establishment controllers.
Yesterday we reported on the immigration protests that are a front for the violent separatist Atzlan movement. After watching Spanish TV news stations we were able to ascertain that the marches were not wholly an organic response to the introduction of the immigration bill but were being artificially promoted and organized by the Spanish-language media.

The Associated Press reported today that, "Many of the 500,000 people who crammed downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to protest legislation that would make criminals out of illegal immigrants learned where, when and even how to demonstrate from the Spanish-language media.
"For English-speaking America, the mass protests in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities over the past few days have been surprising for their size and seeming spontaneity."
"But they were organized, promoted or publicized for weeks by Spanish-language radio hosts and TV anchors as a demonstration of Hispanic pride and power."

In reality the foundation of the protests is not the "Sensenbrenner bill" but part of "an orchestrated advance on the part of a race hate movement that seeks to enact a brutal program of ethnic cleansing that will wipe uncooperative whites and blacks from the south and western states off the map".....
Continue reading the rest of the article by clicking the link below:
Race Riots Could Lead to Camps For Americans and Illegals

And another article from another site that I visit quite often to get the "weird, sometimes half true right wing views" on alot of things that are going on in the world today....
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/29/92746.shtml?s=ic

And where is King George right about now??
Heading to Mexico to try to "reign" in his Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox and to probably try and convince him to keep his people in Mexico.....

I think I am onto something here...what does anyone else think after reading both articles??

And just so everyone knows, the U.S. Senate has been debating and talking about limiting "Immigrants Rights" for some time now. Could it be more than what we are seeing on the surface?
Maybe I should have posted this story on my other blog:
www.theillusionthatisourworld.blogspot.com
Maybe I still will....

Comments welcome.

Grandpa and Grandma were just a bit Naughty!!!

I just had to laugh when I read this one.

Most people will remember the family that was catapulted into the National News last week when they disappeared off the map somewhere in the mountains of Oregon and then were found 17 days later...most of them still in an RV that had gotten stuck in the wintry roads of the mountains out there. The son and daughter had left the RV after viewing tv reports that the search for them had been called off.

Well it seems that grandma and grandpa, who were along for the ride with their son and his family had some pretty deep skeletons rattling in the closet and due to the national exposure of them being found.....the authorities in Arizona have now got them coming back to that fair state for some nasty little drug charges....

You cant pick your family!!!

Click on link for the latest from CNN on this one....
CNN.com - Once-snowbound couple captured - Mar 28, 2006

Accoona-Might give Google a run for its money-New Search Engine

There is another new kid on the block. Watch out "Google"!

While "Google" is my favorite search engine and I have very high regard for it's company (plus my blog is on their company sponsored site) this search tool is pretty gutsy in and by itself.

Take a look and see for yourself...
Click on link below to take you to Accoona
accoona SuperTarget Your Search

Adobe Warns of Critical Flaw in its Flash Player,-Drive-by Downloads

This may be a bit old for most of my "Techie" friends out there but all the same I felt that I should give people a heads up.

Most people who watch funny videos and other things on their computer will probably have this application on their personal systems.

So here is my public service to all computer users out there who may not know of this flaw....

Click the link below for the story
http://www.desktoppipeline.com/183700028

And a quick link to Adobe's web page for this download.
http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash
If you get to the page and it also has a check mark next to the "Yahoo Tool Bar installation...UNCHECK it!. Though Yahoo itself may be a good thing....the toolbar installs lots of "Nasties" with it....it took me a few hours to find all the things it came with when someone at work, while checking their web mail decided to install this Internet Explorer "Add-on".

Most people only need to click on the "install now" button on that page and all will be taken care of....

Warm Regards....

More Remains Discovered near WTC site

(Click on the photos above to bring up bigger more detailed images)

This has got to be one of the more "gruesome" stories I have read in the last few months.

And to imagine that I was walking around that site for a few hours just a few months back.

The photos above are from me. I took them when I was out in NYC back in October of this last year. I wonder which one of those skyscrapers (if any) was the one mentioned in the following story. The story says the remains were found on the roof and on the 38th floor of the "Dutcshe Bank Building"....and there are a few buildings around the site...mostly to the left of the main site...that were damaged. The above photos are are a few (if not most) of the building I saw that had structural damage due to this horrific event.

Click on link below for full story....
CNN.com - More�remains discovered near WTC site - Mar 28, 2006

God Bless those people who lost their lives and I hope that all of their wordly remains are eventually found and identified so as they may be put to rest once and for all.

Introducing "Mini Me"...My New 2006 Ford Focus - See details, hatchback options, ZX3

Ok so this post was supposed to be on this page but somehow I accidently posted it to my archive page....

So without further ado.....

http://jrepinski3.blogspot.com/2006/03/introducing-mini-memy-new-2006-ford.html

An intro to my latest little toy.

Photos of "mine" to follow.
(The photo of the "Mini-Me" on that page is taken from the web.
I plan on introducing her via my digital camera once I have her all decked out...both interior and exterior.
Just wait...she will be the "princess at the Ball" when I get done with this little beast......

Plus she aint that slow either...esp. considering she is only a "4-Banger"!!!!!
I got from 0 to 60 in about 6 seconds on the higway......wwwwrrrr, wwwwwrrrr...and there she was at a nice cruising speed.

Happy Tuesday to all....

The Sunday (March 26, 2006) News According to John: My Sunday Ramblings

So to start off the 2nd week's installment of "The Sunday News According to Me" and otherwise known as "My Sunday Ramblings"-I figured a story that SHOULD be important to EVERYONE WHO INHABITS THIS PLANET WE CALL HOME should be the first story of the day.

Contents:

1. Be Worried, Be Very Worried (Story about Global Warming)
2. Unreleased 911 Calls from 911 (Story about Emegency calls from victims of the Twin Towers)
3. Hee Haw (Story about one of the host's (Buck Owens) death and a little Hee Haw TV history)
4. Missing Link Possibly found in Africa?? (Story about the elusive missing link between modern man and the extinct "Homo Erectus")
5. Gas-Gas-Gas (story on the ever increasing price of automotive gasoline-and crude oil, which is its base)
6. Beavis and Buthead Missing (Two little black boys missing from Milwaukee area more than week now)
7. Bird Flu-Part Two (Story about how the most recent thinking on this flu's inability to attach to humans may be wrong)
8. Monkey Business (A story on how Chimps and Humans have very similar behaviors)
9. Strange and Crazy News (a mix of different insane stories from around the globe)
10. End Notes (sort of like a weekly Editorial from a publisher of a newspaper)
    
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Be Worried, Be Very Worried

Our Planet is hurting right now, more so than probably any other time in recent history. Many people have warned about Global Warming and the effects that it will have on our enviroment. Things such as droughts, floods, fires, ozone depletion....and more.
Well folks, all of this is happening right now and at a very increased rate.
I have heard people talking about a "Tipping Point", where the all the forces of nature and space decend upon a planet and a sort of "feedback loop" starts where things just start falling apart due to one thing affecting another and so on and so fourth.

The following articles from Time Magazine talks more about this very real and current danger to all who inhabit this "3rd Rock from the Sun". (At least we inhabit it now...who knows how much longer we really have).
Click on link below to read the article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/03/26/coverstory/index.html

And for the entire cover story from Time Magazine, click this link:
http://jrepinski3.blogspot.com/2006/03/time-magazine-cover-story-global.html

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Unreleased 911 calls from 911

So.... due to a lawsuit that was filed by members of victim's families as well as various News media outlets, audio recordings of what must certianly be many people's "last phone calls" from the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, are being released to the "Next of Kin" of these victims.

The story as CNN is reporting it says in part:

The mayor's office is sending form letters this weekend to the families of 24 victims of the 9/11 attacks, informing them of unreleased recordings of 911 calls made by their loved ones.
At least one recipient called the letters "totally crass."
"I had one family member call me today, she was hysterical. She actually fainted," said Bill Doyle, whose son died after two planes crashed into the WTC towers. "She opened it up in an elevator and she couldn't believe it, because she never heard from her husband that morning, but apparently he called 911."

The article from CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/03/26/WTC.911.calls/index.html

Watch the CNN Video-which I have linked to-for the details on this one:

Click on link below:
World Trade Center victims' final words

(2:24) Broadband connection best for viewing.

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Hee Haw.....

Buck Owens passed away Saturday.
Alot of today's youth won't know (or probably care) who this guy was.
I remember him though from watching the tv series "Hee Haw" on saturday nights when I ws a kid, with my parents.
I always thought it was a funny show and though some of the jokes were very corny to say the least, the show was one of the "Main Stays" of television viewing back in the 70's (which is the decade that I grew up in) and I know for a fact that this tv show helped launched a lot of "Country Superstar's" careers and kept a whole slew of other's in the public eye in addition to having many other guest stars of tv and movies make appearances on the show. They did funny "skits", had really dumb jokes, and lots of country music. If I had to relate this show to any other (esp. for the younger generation to know what I am talking about in the least) then I would have to say that it was kind of like a "Country Saturday Night Live" show.....

Some not very well known trivia facts about the show:
-After being cancelled, the show moved to first run syndication where it ran for an additional 21 years.
The first season including the pilot was done in studio A at WLAC-Tv in Nashville. The station is now WTVF Newschannel 5.

-The show was originally scheduled to be shot entirely in California, but the general manager of WLAC talked CBS into doing the show at his station. The reason: "I could stand on the front porch of the station, blow a whistle, and have any country singer we need."

-A victim of the infamous rural purge in 1971 along with "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962), "Mayberry R.F.D." (1968), "Green Acres" (1965) and the "Toast of the Town" (1948). These shows were perceived by then CBS executive Fred Silverman to only appeal to people who lived in rural areas and older people, so he decided to cancel them even though they were all still hugely popular at the time.

Funny that I never see it in syndication on any tv channels. But then again I don't watch tv all that much, so maybe it is on somewhere within the 200 some odd channels that are available via my Time Warner Cable set up.....

An article on Buck Owens passing, via CNN, can be read by clicking the link below:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/25/obit.owens.ap/index.html

And for those who want to take a trip down memory lane or maybe just want to learn a little more on what this "Hee Haw" tv show was all about-then click some of the links below:
http://www.heehaw.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hee_Haw
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Missing Link found in Africa??

Where else would this elusive "missing link" be found but in Africa. Most scientists, archeologists and others in the field of ancient human history now believe that man first emerged out of Africa. That is where "Lucy" one of man's ancestors, was found as well as a host of other specimens that bear striking resembelances to us "human beings". This latest find was unerarthed about 5 weeks ago in Ethiopia.
(Isnt that where all the famine jokes came from back in the 80s??)

Click below for the article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/03/25/missing.link.ap/index.html

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Gas-Gas-Gas

The oil companies are reaping in massive profits and believe it or not there is still plenty of crude oil, yet gas prices continue to increase. The price here in Racine for "Regular Unleaded" is currently at $2.57 a gallon at most places. According to a recent article I read, the cheapest prices by far are in Utah, with Salt Lake City prices being around $2.28 a gallon (Wonder why those Mormons are being treated so good??).

A link below to one article talking about the rise:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GAS_PRICES?SITE=WIMIL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

So here I go digging a little more and I may have come up with a few differennt reasons.
One possible scenario is outlined below:
Some people think the real reason we invaded Iraq was not 911, but oil. Now Greg Palast writes in The Guardian that the Iraq war IS all about oil, but according to Palast, we didn't invade Iraq three years ago in order to have more oil, we went to war so we'd have less (and the oil companies would have higher profits).

Palast reports on a conversation he had with ex-CIA oil analyst Robert Ebel about a secret meeting he attended a month before the invasion of Iraq, with Saddam’s former oil minister. The meeting was not about freeing up more oil for the West, it was about making sure that Iraq joined OPEC, so the West would get less oil, at higher prices. The Guardian obtained a copy of a secret memo drafted by the US State Department about this.

The US government wants Iraq to support OPEC, which is notorious for its high oil prices, which cause the price of US gasoline to rise. Saudi Arabia, which filmmaker Michael Moore showed us has close ties to the Bush family, basically runs OPEC and if Iraq was tied to this organization, Iraq's oil would be parceled out slowly, in order to keep the price high.

Iraq was hurting due to US sanctions, and Saddam was undoubtedly tempted to get more money by pumping more oil, but that would have gone against OPEC's mandate and driven prices down, affecting all OPEC countries, as well as lowering profits for the oil companies.

So there you have another "conspiracy". By clicking on some of the underlined links in the above paragraphs, you can learn a little more.
Like I have said before, there is a lot more going on with all of this than we are being told.
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Beavis and Buthead Missing...

Oops, I meant that to read "Purvis and Quadrevien" Missing.

This story has been pretty much in the headlines for a week now. Two young black kids dispapeared from their Milwaukee neighborhood last week and the search is picking up quite a bit of "national exposure". CNN has even dedicated some time to this.....

Click below to read the CNN article:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/26/milwaukee.boys/index.html

(By the way who would name their kid "Purvis" and his middle name "Virginia"?? I can just imagine the ribbing he must take in school. As we all know, kids can be cruel....maybe he ran away to change his name. And the other kid having pig tails just like a girl?? Maybe they are pre adolecent lovers and took off on a little two week long tryst).

How much you wanna bet that they are both either in the clutches of some "sexual predator" that likes little "chocoalate popicles" or that they are on the bottom of Lake Michigan because of same thing.
The police in Milwaukee seem to think that other people know what is going on but that they are not coming forward for some reason....

A quote from one of the police spokeswomen:
"We have reason to believe there are individuals with information that is pertinent to this investigation who for reasons unknown to us right now aren't coming forward," Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said at a Friday afternoon briefing.

Maybe they are like me, when I was their age.... and hopped a freight train to see where it would take them.
I almost made it 30 miles away from home before I was realized by the train conductor and sent back home.

There is a $35,000.00 reward for info leading to their whereabouts.
A hotline to call also is available and that is: 1- 877.628.3804
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: 1-800-843-5678

A few links below to this story:
http://www.henningparker.com/

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=410896

Well in any event, I hope for the best for these two little ankle biters. But I have a feeling that they will not be returned to their families the way in which they left. Just a gut feeling...and I don't think I am alone in that thinking.
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Bird Flu-Part Two

There have been quite afew articles on how some think that the "Bird Flu" now may NOT affect humans the way alot of people thought it would. But I personally think that they may be jumping the gun just a bit.

Bird flu is a killer when it infects human beings, but so far it has not mutated into a virus that people can catch from each other. Now scientists are learning why. Scientists are learning why the avian flu virus H5N1 has not yet mutated into a strain that can be transmitted between humans. It turns out that the avian strain can't bind to human cells. But only one major mutation is needed for the flu to become transmittable between people. Is this mutation likely to occur?

Click link below for the rest of the story:
http://jrepinski3.blogspot.com/2006/03/full-story-on-bird-flu-part-two.html

Somehow I do not think we are "out of the woods" on this one yet.....
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Monkey Business

Humans and chimpanzees are almost identical genetically, and we often act alike as well.
Now it turns out there are primate police. Monkeys also like to scratch each other’s backs AND monkeys are willing to pay for sex.

LiveScience.com has a very interesting article where I got most of my info for this piece.
(click on link below for full story):
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/050128_monkey_business.html

Anyway, there is new research that reveals that monkey cops help make their fellow primates behave through intimidation and seniority (like human police). If you remove the primate police from a group, the rest of the groups gets more violent and aggressive. One of the ways they keep order is by getting in between warring groups or by chasing misbehaving monkeys away.

But these primate police aren't dictators—they are voted in by the group. Monkeys vote for a candidate by baring their teeth in order to "elect" their favorite candidate.

The author of the "Monkey piece" writes in LiveScience.com that monkeys also "pay" for sex. Male monkeys will give up their juice rewards for a glimpse of a female monkey’s bottom, just like human males do in a strip show. They also enjoy looking at images of higher ranking male monkeys, the way we humans like to read about movie stars and other famous folk.

Monkeys like to scratch each other’s backs, and it's been discovered that one monkey tells the other just where to scratch, which is another thing we humans do too. Anthropologist John Mitani says, "The more we learn, the more we see chimpanzees employing remarkable, seemingly human-like behaviors."

All I have to say on this is "Here Cheeta".
I wish I could get Scrappy to do just one of those things!!!

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Strange and Crazy News

• The Rape of a "poodle"-A quote from the news article: "Sassy will survive but will never be the same".It seems some crazy dogophile is on the loose in Pheonix Arizona. And I thought all the whackos lived in either California, Florida or Wisconsin. http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=4682151
• Come to an "After Bar" NOW and Leave Dead LATER- A quote from the news article: "Someone invited the killer to the home on Republican for an after-party which continued through the night. Some of the witnesses interviewed by police said the shooter was "quiet and humble" when he was initially at the after-party, Kerlikowske said.Just before 7 a.m., he left the home. " What in the heck? Maybe some Meth abuse or he got "rebuffed" when he tried to make a pass at some hottie? http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/264372_shooting25ww.html
• Worms that Come out of your Hand (or Feet or Eyes)-A Quote from the news article: "Ogi is one of the last areas of Nigeria infested with Guinea worm, a plague so ancient that it is found in Egyptian mummies and is thought to be the "fiery serpent" described in the Old Testament as torturing the Israelites in the desert.
  For untold generations here, yardlong, spaghetti-thin worms erupted from the legs or feet — or even eye sockets — of victims, forcing their way out by exuding acid under the skin until it bubbled and burst." Ok, so I am so glad I ate before reading this one. It seems that Jimmy Carter (our former president is trying to help eradicatte this little pest from the world. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/international/africa/26worm.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=5851475b059fc8ea&hp&ex=1143349200&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

________________________________________________________________________

End Notes

There is so much going on in these times. The above are just a few of the things that are going on in our very strange and crazy world at this moment in time.

On a more personal note, my friend and buddy of the last few years is retiring on Monday. She has been a loyal companion for the last three years and she went with me when I took my road trip out west a few years ago. We had the greatest time on that trip and she helped me "close some doors" out there in Colorado, which I had wanted to do for such a very long time. She has carried my butt all over Wisconsin and Racine.
So it is with great sadness that I take my friend to the retirement home on monday morning. I will miss you my little "2003 model Ford Ranger 4by4 Off Roader"......may your remaining years be filled with peace and happiness.

Warm Regards to all for a great week coming up....
J.R.

Race Car Driver Dies in Gruesome Crash at Warm Up Race

Paul Dana, an "Indy Car" Race Car Driver, died after a pretty gruesome crash at a warm up race earlier today just before noon in Homestead Florida. He was the 2nd car in crash. Another man's (Carpenter) car hit the side wall and spun out and shortly after, Dana's car came crashing into it. The video from CNN I just watched was pretty intense. I have some friends who are racing fans and this info will surly be news to them.

Read the full story here:
http://www.indyracing.com/news/story.php?story_id=6194

And this is the home site with the leading story being the above story:
IndyCar.com

And a bio on this man:
http://www.pauldana.com/bio.asp

My thoughts go out to this young man's family.

Stay tuned for my "Sunday Ramblings".....

Very cool illusion

One of my friends sent me this via email the other day.
I thought it was very cool.

This just gos to show you that "we don't always see what is clearly right in front of our faces".


Click on link below for the illusion of the dots!
Very cool illusion

PS: Stay tuned for the "Sunday Ramblings"....

An online poll on Charlie Sheens statements about 911 cover up

Close to 83% of the population is with Charlie Sheen in thinking that there is alot more to the official 911 story than what we are being told.

A few posts down (or in my archives) there is the link to Sheen's video interview on this topic.

Click on the link (still available as of this posting) below to go to a CNN site that will take you to a showbiz tonight site. On the left hand side under "Quick vote" you can take the poll and see the percentage points as they have been tallied up via this poll.

CNN.com - Showbiz Tonight

Have a good weekend and stay tuned for my "Sunday Ramblings".

A Short History of the Current Situation in Iraq

This headline could also read "Why Iraq is so Important to the U.S. and Others". or "See How History Repeats Itself".....

I wont go into the total history of Iraq in this missive as one can find that info almost anywhere on the internet.
I will include a link that talks about pretty much everything that has to do with Iraq though via the "Wikepedia entry" below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq

(FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains some copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am distibuting this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C ß 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of their own that go beyond fair use, they should obtain permission from the copyright owner.)

Chapter One: Iraq the country and their Biggest Natural (and political) recourse-Oil

The Republic of Iraq (Arabic: العراق (help·info); Kurdish: عيَراق) is a Middle Eastern country in southwestern Asia encompassing most of Mesopotamia as well as the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. It shares borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the west, Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, and Iran to the east. It has a very narrow section of coastline at Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf.

Iraq has the world’s second largest proven oil reserves. According to oil industry experts, new exploration will probably raise Iraq’s reserves to 200+ billion barrels of high-grade crude, extraordinarily cheap to produce.
The four giant firms located in the US and the UK have been keen to get back into Iraq, from which they were excluded with the nationalization of 1972.
During the final years of the Saddam era, they envied companies from France, Russia, China, and elsewhere, who had obtained major contracts. But UN sanctions (kept in place by the US and the UK) kept those contracts inoperable.

Since the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, everything has changed. In the new setting, with Washington running the show, "friendly" companies expect to gain most of the lucrative oil deals that will be worth hundreds of billions of dollars in profits in the coming decades.

The new Iraqi constitution of 2005, greatly influenced by US advisors, contains language that guarantees a major role for foreign companies. Negotiators hope soon to complete deals on Production Sharing Agreements that will give the companies control over dozens of fields, including the fabled super-giant Majnoon, but no contracts can be signed until after elections, when a new government takes office.

While regional governments angle for influence over the foreign oil contracts, most Iraqis favor continued control by a national company and the powerful oil workers union opposes de-nationalization. Iraq's political future is very much in flux, but oil remains the central feature of the political landscape.


Chapter Two:The Invasions of Iraq

The United States invaded Iraq in alliance with Britain on March 20, 2003, winning a quick military victory and ousting the government of Saddam Hussein. What alot of people don't realize is that Britian also invaded Iraq once before in the last century. More on this in a few paragraphs.....

Back to the current time frame in the meantime: Though the US and the UK claimed they acted in accordance with international law, an overwhelming majority of the world’s governments and people thought otherwise.
Since then, the US-UK occupation has encountered increasing armed resistance in Iraq, and support for the war and occupation has steadily declined in the invading countries. US-UK claims about Iraqi weapons threats and terror links have proven false, and the costs of the operation have risen.

This next section looks at many aspects of the conflict in Iraq, such as the background to the war, including the thirteen years of sanctions and the importance of Iraq’s huge oil resources. It also examines the issues that have emerged since the invasion, such as the resistance to the occupation, the disputes surrounding a post-war government, and the task of reconstruction.

Chapter Three: Enemies at the Gate more than Once (History Repeats itself):

Britain set up a colonial regime in Iraq after a long military campaign during World War I.

The planning for this had started well before 1920 as you will see from the following condensed history of that "other occupation" which bears many resemblences to the current occupation of 2003 to the present times.

In response to Iraqi resistance, including a country-wide uprising in 1920, British forces battled for over a decade to pacify the country, using airplanes, armored cars, firebombs and mustard gas.
Air attacks were used to shock and awe, to teach obedience and to force the collection of taxes.

Winston Churchill, as responsible cabinet minister in the early years, saw Iraq as an experiment in high-technology colonial control. Though officials in London sometimes had qualms about the violence, colonial administrators on the ground like Gertrude Bell expressed enthusiasm for the power of the imperial military enterprise.

Circa 1917:

They came as liberators but were met by fierce resistance outside Baghdad. Humiliating treatment of prisoners and heavy-handed action in Najaf and Fallujah further alienated the local population. A planned handover of power proved unworkable. Britain's 1917 occupation of Iraq holds uncanny parallels with today - and if we want to know what will happen there next, we need only turn to our history books...

On the eve of our "handover" of "full sovereignty" to Iraq, this is a story of tragedy and folly and of dark foreboding. It is about the past-made-present, and our ability to copy blindly and to the very letter the lies and follies of our ancestors. It is about that admonition of antiquity: that if we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

For Iraq 1917, read Iraq 2003. For Iraq 1920, read Iraq 2004 or 2005.
Yes, we are preparing to give "full sovereignty" to Iraq.
That's also what the British falsely claimed more than 80 years ago.

Come, then, and confront the looking glass of history, and see what America and Britain will do in the next 12 terrible months in Iraq.
The story begins in March 1917 as 22-year-old Private 11072 Charles Dickens of the Cheshire Regiment peels a poster off a wall in the newly captured city of Baghdad. It is a turning point in his life. He has survived the hopeless Gallipoli campaign, attacking the Ottoman empire only 150 miles from its capital, Constantinople. He has then marched the length of Mesopotamia, fighting the Turks yet again for possession of the ancient caliphate, and enduring the grim battle for Baghdad. The British invasion army of 600,000 soldiers was led by Lieutenant-General Sir Stanley Maude, and the sheet of paper that caught Private Dickens's attention was Maude's official "Proclamation" to the people of Baghdad, printed in English and Arabic.

That same 11in by 18in poster, now framed in black and gold, hangs on the wall a few feet from my desk as I write this story of empire and dark prophecy. Long ago, the paper was stained with damp - "foxed", as booksellers say - which may have been Private Dickens's perspiration in the long hot Iraqi summer of 1917. It has been folded many times; witness, as his daughter Hilda would recall 86 years later, to its presence in his army knapsack over many months.

In a letter to me, she called this "his precious document", and I can see why. It is filled with noble aspirations and presentiments of future tragedy; with the false promises of the world's greatest empire, commitments and good intentions; and with words of honour that were to be repeated in the same city of Baghdad by the next great empire more than two decades after Dickens's death. It reads now like a funeral dirge:

"Proclamation... Our military operations have as their object, the defeat of the enemy and the driving of him from these territories. In order to complete this task I am charged with absolute and supreme control of all regions in which British troops operate; but our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators... Your citizens have been subject to the tyranny of strangers... and your fathers and yourselves have groaned in bondage. Your sons have been carried off to wars not of your seeking, your wealth has been stripped from you by unjust men and squandered in different places. It is the wish not only of my King and his peoples, but it is also the wish of the great Nations with whom he is in alliance, that you should prosper even as in the past when your lands were fertile... But you, people of Baghdad... are not to understand that it is the wish of the British Government to impose upon you alien institutions. It is the hope of the British Government that the aspirations of your philosophers and writers shall be realised once again, that the people of Baghdad shall flourish, and shall enjoy their wealth and substance under institutions which are in consonance with their sacred laws and with their racial ideals... It is the hope and desire of the British people... that the Arab race may rise once more to greatness and renown amongst the peoples of the Earth... Therefore I am commanded to invite you, through your Nobles and Elders and Representatives, to participate in the management of your civil affairs in collaboration with the Political Representative of Great Britain... so that you may unite with your kinsmen in the North, East, South and West, in realising the aspirations of your Race.
(signed) F.S. Maude, Lieutenant-General, Commanding the British Forces in Iraq."

Private Dickens spent the First World War fighting Muslims, first the Turks at Suvla Bay at Gallipoli and then the Turkish army - which included Iraqi soldiers - in Mesopotamia. He spoke "often and admirably," his daughter would recall, of one of his commanders, General Sir Charles Munro, who at 55 had fought in the last months of the Gallipoli campaign and then landed at Basra in southern Iraq at the start of the British invasion.
But Munro's leadership did not save Dickens's sister's nephew, Samuel Martin, who was killed by the Turks at Basra. Hilda remembers: "My father told of how killing a Turk, he thought it was in revenge for the death of his 'nephew'. I don't know if they were in the same battalion, but they were a similar age, 22 years."

In all, Britain lost 40,000 men in the Mesopotamian campaign. The British had been proud of their initial occupation of Basra. More than 80 years later, Shameem Bhatia, a British Muslim whose family came from Pakistan, would send me an amused letter, along with a series of 12 very old postcards, which were printed by The Times of India in Bombay on behalf of the Indian YMCA. One of them showed British artillery amid the Basra date palms; another a soldier in a pith helmet, turning towards the camera as his comrades tether horses behind him; others the crew of a British gunboat on the Shatt al-Arab river, and the Turkish-held town of Kurna, one of its buildings shattered by British shellfire, shortly before its surrender.
The ruins then looked, of course, identical to the Iraqi ruins of today. There are only so many ways in which a shell can smash through a home.

As long ago as 1914, a senior British official was told by "local [Arab] notables" that "we should be received in Baghdad with the same cordiality [as in southern Iraq] and that the Turkish troops would offer little if any opposition". But the British invasion of Iraq had originally failed. When Major-General Charles Townshend took 13,000 men up the banks of the Tigris towards Baghdad, he was surrounded and defeated by Turkish forces at Kut al-Amara.
His surrender was the most comprehensive of military disasters, ending in a death march to Turkey for those British troops who had not been killed in battle.

The graves of 500 of them in the Kut War Cemetery sank into sewage during the period of United Nations sanctions that followed Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, when spare parts for the pumps needed to keep sewage from the graves were not supplied to Iraq. Visiting the cemetery in 1998, my colleague Patrick Cockburn found "tombstones... still just visible above the slimy green water. A broken cement cross sticks out of a reed bed... A quagmire in which thousands of little green frogs swarm like cockroaches as they feed on garbage."

Baghdad looked much the same when Private Dickens arrived in 1917. Less than two years earlier, a visitor had described a city whose streets "gaped emptily. The shops were mostly closed... In the Christian cemetery east of the high road leading to Persia, coffins and half-mouldering skeletons were floating. On account of the Cholera which was ravaging the town [three hundred people were dying of it every day] the Christian dead were now being buried on the new embankment of the high road, so that people walking and riding not only had to pass by but even to make their way among and over the graves... There was no longer any life in the town."

The British occupation was dark with historical precedent. There was, of course, no "cordial" reception of British troops in Baghdad. Indeed, Iraqi troops who had been serving with the Turkish army but who "always entertained friendly ideas towards the English" were jailed - not in Abu Ghraib, but in India - and found that while in prison there they were "insulted and humiliated in every way".
These same prisoners wanted to know if the British would hand Iraq over to Sherif Hussein of the Hejaz - to whom the British had made fulsome and ultimately mendacious promises of "independence" for the Arab world if he fought alongside the Allies against the Turks - on the grounds that "some of the Holy Moslem Shrines are located in Mesopotamia".

British officials believed that control of Mesopotamia would safeguard British oil interests in Persia (the initial occupation of Basra was ostensibly designed to do that) and that "clearly it is our right and duty, if we sacrifice so much for the peace of the world, that we should see to it we have compensation, or we may defeat our end" - which was not how Lt-Gen Maude expressed Britain's ambitions in his famous proclamation in 1917.

Earl Asquith was to write in his memoirs that he and Sir Edward Grey, the British foreign secretary, agreed in 1915 that "taking Mesopotamia... means spending millions in irrigation and development". Which is precisely what President George Bush was forced to do only months after his illegal invasion in 2003.

Those who want to wallow in even more ghastly historical parallels should turn to the magnificent research of the Iraqi scholar Ghassan Attiyah, whose volume on the British occupation was published in Beirut long before Saddam's regime took over Iraq, at a time when Iraqi as well as British archives of the period were still available. Attiyah's Iraq, 1902-1921: A Socio-Political Study, written 30 years before the Anglo-American invasion, should be read by all Western "statesmen" planning to occupy Arab countries.

As Attiyah discovered, the British, once they were installed in Baghdad, decided in the winter of 1917 that Iraq would have to be governed and reconstructed by a "council" formed partly of British advisers "and partly of representative non-official members from among the inhabitants". The copycat 2003 version of this "council" was, of course, the Interim Governing Council, supposedly the brainchild of Maude's American successor, Paul Bremer.
Later, the British thought they would like "a cabinet half of natives and half of British officials, behind which might be an administrative council, or some advisory body consisting entirely of prominent natives". The traveller and scholar Gertrude Bell, who became "oriental secretary" to the British military occupation authority, had no doubts about Iraqi public opinion: "The stronger the hold we are able to keep here the better the inhabitants will be pleased... They can't conceive an independent Arab government. Nor, I confess, can I. There is no one here who could run it."
Again, this was far from the noble aspirations of Maude's proclamation issued * * 11 months earlier. Nor would the Iraqis have been surprised had they been told (which, of course, they were not) that Maude strongly opposed the very proclamation that appeared over his name, and which in fact had been written by Sir Mark Sykes - the very same Sykes who had drawn up the secret 1916 agreement with F Georges-Picot for French and British control over much of the post-war Middle East.

But, by September 1919, even journalists were beginning to grasp that Britain's plans for Iraq were founded upon illusions. "I imagine," the correspondent for The Times wrote on 23 September, "that the view held by many English people about Mesopotamia is that the local inhabitants will welcome us because we have saved them from the Turks, and that the country only needs developing to repay a large expenditure of English lives and English money. Neither of these ideals will bear much examination... From the political point of view we are asking the Arab to exchange his pride and independence for a little Western civilisation, the profits of which must be largely absorbed by the expenses of administration."

Within six months, Britain was fighting a military insurrection in Iraq and David Lloyd George, the prime minister, was facing calls for a military withdrawal. "Is it not for the benefit of the people of that country that it should be governed so as to enable them to develop this land which has been withered and shrivelled up by oppression? What would happen if we withdrew?" Lloyd George would not abandon Iraq to "anarchy and confusion". By this stage, British officials in Baghdad were blaming the violence on "local political agitation, originated outside Iraq", suggesting that Syria might be involved.

Come again? Could history repeat itself so perfectly? For Lloyd George's "anarchy", read any statement from the American occupation power warning of "civil war" in the event of a Western withdrawal. For Syria - well, read Syria.

AT Wilson, the senior British official in Iraq in 1920, took a predictable line. "We cannot maintain our position... by a policy of conciliation of extremists. Having set our hand to the task of regenerating Mesopotamia, we must be prepared to furnish men and money... We must be prepared... to go very slowly with constitutional and democratic institutions."

There was fighting in the Shia town of Kufa and a British siege of Najaf after a British official was murdered. The British demanded "the unconditional surrender of the murderers and others concerned in the plot", and the leading Shia divine, Sayed Khadum Yazdi, abstained from supporting the rebellion and shut himself up in his house. Eleven of the insurgents were executed. A local sheikh, Badr al-Rumaydh, became a target. "Badr must be killed or captured, and a relentless pursuit of the man till this object is obtained should be carried out," a British political officer wrote.
The British now realised that they had made one big political mistake. They had alienated a major political group in Iraq - the ex-Turkish Iraqi officials and officers. The ranks of the disaffected swelled.

For Kufa 1920, read Kufa 2004. For Najaf 1920, read Najaf 2004. For Yazdi, read Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. For Badr, read Muqtada al-Sadr.

In 1920, another insurgency broke out in the area of Fallujah, where Sheikh Dhari killed a British officer, Colonel Leachman, and cut rail traffic between Fallujah and Baghdad. The British advanced towards Fallujah and inflicted "heavy punishment" on the tribe. For Fallujah, of course, read Fallujah. And the location of the heavy punishment? Today it is known as Khan Dari - and it was the scene of the first killing of a US soldier by a roadside bomb in 2003.

In desperation, the British needed "to complete the façade of the Arab government". And so, with Winston Churchill's enthusiastic support, the British gave the throne of Iraq to the Hashemite King Faisal, the son of Sherif Hussein, a consolation prize for the man the French had just thrown out of Damascus. Paris was having no kings in its own mandated territory of Syria. Henceforth, the British government - deprived of reconstruction funds by an international recession, and confronted by an increasingly unwilling soldiery, which had fought during the 1914-18 war and was waiting for demobilisation - would rely on air power to impose its wishes.

There are no kings to impose on Iraq today (the former Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan pulled his hat out of the ring just before the invasion), so we have installed Iyad Allawi, the former CIA "asset", as prime minister in the hope that he can provide the same sovereign wallpaper as Faisal once did. Our soldiers can hide out in the desert, hopefully unattacked, unless they are needed to shore up the tottering power of our present-day "Faisal".

And so we come to the immediate future of Iraq. How are we to "control" Iraq while claiming that we have handed over "full sovereignty"? Again, the archives come to our rescue. The Royal Air Force, again with Churchill's support, bombed rebellious villages and dissident tribesmen in Iraq. Churchill urged the employment of mustard gas, which had been used against Shia rebels in 1920.
Squadron Leader Arthur Harris, later Marshal of the Royal Air Force and the man who perfected the firestorm destruction of Hamburg, Dresden and other great German cities in the Second World War, was employed to refine the bombing of Iraqi insurgents. The RAF found, he wrote much later, "that by burning down their reed-hutted villages, after we'd warned them to get out, we put them to the maximum amount of inconvenience, without physical hurt [sic], and they soon stopped their raiding and looting..."

This was what, in its emasculation of the English language, the Pentagon would now call "war lite". But the bombing was not as surgical as Harris's official biographer would suggest. In 1924, he had admitted that "they [the Arabs and Kurds] now know what real bombing means, in casualties and damage; they know that within 45 minutes a full-sized village can be practically wiped out and a third of its inhabitants killed or injured".

TE Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia - remarked in a 1920 letter to The Observer that "it is odd that we do not use poison gas on these occasions". Air Commodore Lionel Charlton was so appalled at the casualties inflicted on innocent villagers that he resigned his post as Senior Air Staff Officer Iraq because he could no longer "maintain the policy of intimidation by bomb". He had visited an Iraqi hospital to find it full of wounded tribesmen. After the RAF had bombed the Kurdish rebel city of Sulaymaniyah, Charlton "knew the crowded life of these settlements and pictured with horror the arrival of a bomb, without warning, in the midst of a market gathering or in the bazaar quarter. Men, women and children would suffer equally."

Already, we have seen the use of almost indiscriminate air power by the American forces in Iraq: the destruction of homes in "dissident" villages, the bombing of mosques where weapons are allegedly concealed, the slaughter-by-air-strike of "terrorists" near the Syrian border, who turned out to be a wedding party. Much the same policy has been adopted in the already abandoned "democracy" of Afghanistan.

As for the soldiers, they couldn't ship our corpses home in the heat of the Middle East 80 years ago, so they buried them in the great North Wall Cemetery in Baghdad, where they lie to this day, most of them in their late teens and twenties. We didn't hide their coffins. Their last resting place is still there for all to see today, opposite the ruins of the suicide-bombed Turkish embassy.
As for the gravestone of Samuel Martin, it stood for years in the British war cemetery in Basra with the following inscription: "In Memory of Private Samuel Martin 24384, 8th Bn, Cheshire Regiment who died on Sunday 9 April 1916. Private Martin, son of George and Sarah Martin, of the Beech Tree Inn, Barnton, Northwich, Cheshire."
In the gales of shellfire that swept Basra during the 1980-88 war with Iran, the cemetery was destroyed and looted and many gravestones shattered beyond repair. If one were to visit the cemetery in the chaotic months after the Anglo-American invasion of 2003, they would find wild dogs roaming between the broken headstones. Even the brass fittings of the central memorial had been stolen.

Chapter Four: Installing a New Government (before Saddam):

The following is an excerpt from The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978).

Hanna Batatu, one of the greatest historians of modern Iraq, here describes Iraqi parliamentary elections during the era of British colonialism. It is sometimes forgotten that the British organized elections in a number of their colonial possessions, both for external show and in order to create a certain degree of internal cohesion and legitimacy. But these elections were highly orchestrated and manipulated, in order to hold in check the forces of secular nationalism. Altogether there were 12 parliamentary elections, in addition to the elections to the Constituent Assembly of 1924. Batatu here speaks of the later period, beginning in 1943, when Iraq was nominally sovereign and independent. Then, the threat of nationalism caused the British to rely even more on their conservative Iraqi allies, the traditional rural leadership.

(from pages 102-104)
In a formal sense, it is not correct to speak of the “assignment” of seats to the tribal chiefs, as the pretense of “free elections” was always maintained. But confidential official reports throw ample light on the actual method of choosing deputies in the tribal country. “The elections,” wrote on the tenth of September, 1930, a British administrative inspector to the adviser of the Ministry of Interior, “generally can be graded into three stages.

Firstly, the Qaim-maqam [subgovernor] maneuvers himself into as strong a position as he can by arranging for the right men to be balloted for on the Committee on Inspection. Secondly, the Qaim-maqam must arrange that a smart Committee man is sent to the out-stations to ensure that the shaiky does not become too powerful by electing as secondary electors all his own relations plus the coffee man and various other hangers-on attached to the mudil. Cases have been known of sheikhs manipulating the elections so that they controlled all the secondary votes in the tribute and thus in a position to auction thirty or more votes to the highest bidder After the second stage is properly arranged the setting is then ready for the third and final stage, i.e., the election of deputies, which, as every one knows, is conducted informally before the event by the Mutasarrif [governor] in the privacy of his office and that of the Qaim-maqam concerned.”

The methods of the government scarcely improved in later years, despite the ending of the formality of indirect elections by Decree No. 6 of 1952. Except, on occasion, for some of the seats of the larger towns, royal Parliaments continued to be packed rather than elected, and to the end would possess neither moral force nor popular confidence.

The following is a description of events that took place over 80 years ago, when Great Britain conquered the three Ottoman provinces of Basra, Baghdad and Mosul and welded them into the new state of Iraq. The fact that there are echoes of the present and of possible future scenarios in Iraq has less to do with some irreducible essence of Iraqi history than with the logic of imperial power. The the United States is now finding itself facing choices similar to those faced by Britain between 1914 and 1921.
It is worth reflecting upon those choices to understand whether the exercise of imperial power in the task of state reconstruction has a similar logic. This could throw light on the kind of Iraq which an American military occupation might bring into being.

When the British invaded Mesopotamia in 1914, they did not intend to create a state. Their immediate objective was the security of their position in the Persian Gulf. But military success led to greater ambitions and by 1918 British forces had occupied the whole of what is now modern Iraq. Throughout the territories a civil administration was established, based on the model of British India, where many of the officers and officials had gained their experience.

It was a mixture of direct and indirect rule: the enterprise was controlled by British-staffed ministries in Baghdad, but British political officers in the provinces depended upon local community leaders to guarantee social order and collect revenues.
Excluded from these arrangements were the predominantly Sunni Arab or Arabised Turkish administrative and military elites of the former Ottoman state. A distinct British imperial order began to emerge, centred on Baghdad, gradually penetrating all levels of society and appearing to consolidate British interests.

But with the end of the war in 1918, different ideas about the nature of those interests surfaced in different branches of the British state. Some held to a strong imperial vision that believed that it was part of Britain's mission to practise the micro-technologies of power, to make society fit the new administrative order. Another view, influenced both by moral doubts about the imperial project and practical questions of resources and commitment, advocated a lighter touch. Here the argument was that Britain had only two basic requirements of any government in Mesopotamia: that it should be administratively competent and that it should be respectful of British strategic requirements. It was this view which triumphed and upon which the state of Iraq was founded (1).

Events in Iraq, as well as in the wider international sphere and in Britain, contributed to this outcome.
In 1920 the principles of national self-determination created the idea of League of Nations mandates - territories of the defeated Central Powers which one of the victorious powers would bring eventually to independence as sovereign states.
The idea was taken up by those in the British government who wanted to maintain its global influence and control at minimum cost, financially and militarily. Given the changing public mood in Britain in 1919-20 about the uses of public expenditure, and the alarm in government about the cost of empire, this seemed an ideal solution.

In Iraq, many people resented the mandate as a light disguise for British imperial control; by contrast, certain British imperial servants in the country saw it as a dangerous abdication of responsibility (2). The clash between these two views led to the Iraqi Revolt of 1920.
This began in Baghdad with mass demonstrations of urban Iraqis, both Sunni and Shi'ite, and the protests of embittered ex-Ottoman officers. The revolt gained momentum when it spread to the largely Shi'ite regions of the middle and lower Euphrates. Well-armed tribesmen, outraged by the intrusions of central government and resentful of infidel rule, seized control of most of the south of the country.
It took the British several months, and cost thousands of lives - British, Indian and Iraqi - to suppress the revolt and re-establish Baghdad's control.

The revolt had two profound consequences. It persuaded the British that the cost of trying to rule Iraq would be too high and that it was imperative to set up a fully-functioning Iraqi government, army and administration. Furthermore, it made it almost inevitable that when the British looked for the cadres to govern the new state, they should choose the Ottoman administrative and military elites displaced during the war.

The British saw these men as having proven experience in running a modern state, as well as a pragmatic grasp of the importance of Britain in helping them to entrench themselves in power, and in securing Iraq in the region. The leaders of the majority Shi'ite population and of the substantial Kurdish minority were seen as potentially mutinous, as well as too encumbered by tribal and religious traditions to govern a modern state.

The above considerations shaped subsequent British policy in Iraq.
Amir Faisal of the Hijaz was installed as king, sustained by mainly Sunni Arab former Ottoman officers and officials. They took over the administration from departing British officials and formed the backbone of the new Iraqi officer corps. British influence continued through its advisers in the Iraqi ministries, through its two major air force bases in the country and through the multiple ties which bound the two countries together and sustained Britain's informal empire even after Iraqi independence in 1932.

In the sense of safeguarding British strategic interests, the advocates of the minimalist or indirect approach to the question of political order in Iraq appeared to have been vindicated. However, they had also laid the foundations for a distinctive form of state in Iraq. This was affected both by the authoritarian inclinations of the new governing class, as well as by their prejudices towards the diverse communities who formed the majority of the Iraqi population (3).

The relevance of this to the present situation is not only that Saddam Hussein's regime is a direct descendant of this pattern of government. It is also that the temptation confronting the US, as it tries to organise the future of Iraq, may be similar to that which faced the British government and its officials in 1920.
__________________________________________________________________________
Chapter Five: The Current Situation:

In the aftermath of the recent military invasion and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, the US is now facing the same similar choices that the British faced back then and history is taking a new turn.

So what are the choices the current coalition, led by the U.S has, to bring about a new government in Iraq?
1. It can try to bring about a fundamental change in the way Iraq is governed and commit the time and resources necessary to make that happen.
2. Or it can set up an Iraqi administration which will carry out the principal wishes of the US - respect for American strategic interests and maintenance of order - thereby allowing an early withdrawal of US forces.
3. A combination of the two which some say we are now doing, but which presents a "quagmire" of sorts....

......This would mean recognising much of the existing power structure in Iraq, as well as the narrative of Iraqi history that brought the most recent regime into being.

My views on where we are headed now:
Faced by internal resistance and the escalating loss of American lives and monetary resources in a project of state reconstruction increasingly remote from the interests of the American public,the US administration is now finding itself way over it's head.
We should have learned from history but we did not.
We are repeating it again, almost the same way that happened in the early 20th century.
By putting ourselfves in the middle of Iraq's internal affairs and promising a mission to transform Iraq into a beacon of democracy in the region, we are thus fully entrenched in a situation that will now last for a very long time.
It has certainly caused despair among those Iraqis who have seen the US as their main hope of radical political change.
But for the US, as for the British 80 years ago, it behooves us to act quickly and with the utmost caution now so that we can hopefully lower any more risks to our troops, the ever increasing costs of this "mission" and the long term advantages that we thought would be brought fourth with this invasion.
In my opinion this was to secure the "oil reserves" of that region and establish a "beach head" of sorts in the Middle East where we can control the outcome of this new world order.

I have a feeling that we are just at the beginning of this long "mission" and as Bush said the other day....it will not be him who pulls our troops out of this area, but it will be up to another leader further down the road.
I have a feeling we will be living with Iraq for a very long time.

So now that you have been educated a little more, does this shed a brighter light on the situation over in Iraq?
I hope so as that was my intention when I started this post, which got to be a little too long.
Thank you for reading.

Charlie Sheen and interesting article on 911 with CNN

I just came across on CNN Website a video with Charlie Sheen (Hollywood Actor), where he talks about his theories on 911.

Interesting article.
Click on the link to view the video....

• Watch: Charlie Sheen: I'll be 'demonized' for 9/11 theory
(A broadband connection is probably needed to view this...otherwise be patient as it may take a while to load).

A link to my Newest Blog

I decided to create a new blog the other day.
This blog will try to inform and "enlighten" those who care to know about the "Global Governance" Movement that some call the "New World Order" or "One World Order".

First let me tell you this-There IS something going on behind the scenes of "World Government" that the average person has not or is not being told about.
It is happening on a daily basis and this movement has been growing for centuries and is now (I feel as do alot of others) on the cusp of becoming the only authority that will eventually rule the planet we call home.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
I have not made my decision yet.
This is the main reason for my new blog.
To help me (and others hopefully) explore what this movement is all about and from looking at the information available, determining the following:

1. Is there really a New World Order in the making
2. How long has it been in existence
3. Who are the players behind this "movement"
4. What is it's agenda
5. Will we as humans be better or worse off because of it
6. What it all means in the long run

Like I said, my new blog has just begun. I hope to make it one of the best ones of it kind on the internet. I hope I can bring some enlightenment not only to myself with this undertaking, but to others as well.

Thank you in advance for taking a look and checking it out. The link is below....

www.theillusionthatisourworld.blogspot.com

A good Thursday to all.

Send an Huge Group Letter to AOL

AOL says it will start charging senders for incoming mails to AOL users. Read the letter and sign on if you want to save free email!

click on the link below to go to the site and add your name to this open email petition....

Our Open Letter to AOL

There may be a chance if you are on AOL subscriber and you subscribe to email newsletters that you may not get said newsletters if AOL has it's way with this latest scheme....

A Free USB Mini Drive from Microsoft!

Just found this.
Pretty cool indeed.
I just ordered one.....

Click this link, then click “VALUABLE INFORMATION” on the right side of the screen to have Microsoft send you a free USB2 flash memory device filled with product literature. It’s a free USB drive! You can delete all the information included on the drive if you wish and use it as your personal USB drive! And, of course, it’s FREE! During a short questionnaire, you’ll be asked for your shipping info, and to answer a few (5) questions, and the answers are 2 ways to get a license, and True for all the other questions. This deal requires a Microsoft .Net login (or an MSN Messenger account) or a Hotmail email address. (but they are all free and you can use your hotmail address as a junk mail account like I do).

So go ahead and get yourself a flash memory device compliments of Bill Gates.
Sometimes there really is a free lunch!
(Allow six to eight weeks for delivery though).

A good Thursday to all

Oops...Windows Vista won't be ready in October

Microsoft Delays Vista Release

Contrary to my blog the other day about Microsoft's newest OS being shipped in October or November, they have decided that at least the consumer editions will not be ready for purchase until Jan. of 2007. Sorry if I jumped the gun on this one...

THE ISSUE: Microsoft Corp. won't have the consumer version of its new operating system, Windows Vista, ready by the crucial holiday selling-season.

THE DELAY: The company says tweaks to the system's security functions have built several extra weeks into the product's expected completion. And that makes it too late for many PC makers and retailers to be ready for the 2006 holiday season.

WHAT NEXT?: Large corporate clients will get some versions of the new system in November, but consumers can expect a huge launch for Vista in January.

A Good Hump Day to All....

A Bush Press Conference and another one from April of 04 with an interesting Q & A Session.....

Why is Bush laughing through this press conference he held either late yesterday or early today?? It seems that he is also a bit rattled. Did he forget to take his Rittalin before going on stage, or maybe he "fell off the wagon" and had a little "nip".......Click on the "Bush Holds New Conference" for the video of this press conference courtesy of the AP:


AP VIDEO

Bush Holds News Conference


And Some quotes from this interesting Press Conference that Bush had back in 2004...

"A Secure and Free Iraq is an Historic opportunity to Change the World"

"A Free Iraq in the Midst of the Middle East will have incredible change"

"We are changing the world"

"We will be there as long as necessary but not one day more!"

"I was disappointed in some of the performance of the troops"...of the Iraqi troops

"I went to the U.N and said if you don't take care of him I will"...in talking about Saddam

"The oil revenues will and are benefiting the Iraqi people"..on where the supposed oil revenues are going

" I grieve for the incredible loss of life"...on if he feels any personal responsibility regarding Osama

"In order to secure the country we must do whatever we can to bring these killers to justice"...but why haven't we brought Osama to justice 5 years later???

"We knew he had designs on us...we knew he hated us".....regarding Osama Bin Laden (But Bush said just two seconds prior to that quote that " the truth of the matter was we weren't on a war footing because we didn't know he was planning anything as spectacular as what he did....WTF?

"Nobody in our government at least, and I don't think in the "prior" government envisioned him flying planes into buildings on such a massive scale".....on intelligence prior to 911 (and is he saying that the Clinton administration was part of our government??)

"I want to know why we haven't found a weapon yet"......on weapons of mass destruction-this one should be self explanatory as there isn't one!!!

"The world is better off without Saddam Hussein"...but 15 years ago he was a friend??

"Had there been a threat that required action by anybody in the government, I would have dealt with it"....on the lack of intelligence that would warrant action before 911

"The coalition is putting "peoples in harm way"....when answering a question of the coalition troops being little more than "window dressing"-though he did correct himself a few seconds later with "People" and "Harms". He also said we really appreciate that they are in Harms way.

"They want us to leave and we aren't gonna leave...its our job!"...on why the coalition of the U.K., Italy and others are still there fighting the insurgents

"The legacy are troops are going to leave behind is a legacy of lasting importance, a legacy that is based upon our deep belief that free societies are peaceful societies"....oh how elequent..did he really say that?

"You will find that out soon"...when asked who he was handing the Iraqi government over to

"My LAST choice is to use Military Power"....did he say that??

"Nobody likes to see dead people on their television screens"...when asked if he feels the people might vote him out of office and that his poll numbers are lower and he says no he doesnt plan on loosing his job and that he has a plan to fight the war on terror

And one of the best quotes at around the 52 minute mark: "I wish you would have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it. Ahh, I'm sure something will pop into my head here but with all this pressure of trying to come up with an answer"..... and then he went on dribbling and not answering the question and just rambled and rambled about other things....On the biggest mistake he has made since 911 but he did say that he is confident that he has made mistakes but he just cant think of any right now and maybe that he just isnt as quick on his feet as he should be......he really said all that!!!

"The Greater Middle East Reform Initiative" he talked about. I will have to look into that one....

"We have an obligation to be the caregiver of the world and we will stay the course for freedom and peace"....towards the end of the speech. He was very passionate at this point and it was a very convincing act I have to say

"I hope you got a sense of my conviction on these things, and if you didnt, maybe I have to learn to communicate better"....he said as part of his closing remarks. I actually believe he said this on his own without any help from Rove or any handler or anyone else.

An interesting hour long press conference from 2004 that Bush gave on how the situation in Iraq was going at that time. The above quotes in bold are from the question and answer session after his speech. Some interesting quotes.

I have to admit his acting is pretty good at times and this has to be one of his better performances though alot of the answers in his question and answer session were pretty odd.
Was he answering all those questions on his own or did he have one of those "handlers" whispering in his ear.

The questions at the end of the speech (about 17 minutes into the video) are quite interesting and the one I like the best was when one reporter asked him what he thinks his greatest mistake since 911 was....

Watch and listen via the link below:
rtsp://cspanrm.fplive.net/cspan/archive/iraq/iraq041304_bush.rm?mode=compact

(The link above is not coming through as I thought it would-you will need to copy and paste it into your browser address bar and it should then open in Real Player (or an alternative player that handles "real files").